| Comment Number: | EM-023201 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 11:41:55 PM |
| Subject: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| Title: | National Security Personnel System |
| CFR Citation: | 5 CFR Chapter XCIX and Part 9901 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
March 16, 2005 DoD NSPS Comments , DoD NSPS Comments: Comments on proposed NSPS Regulations ? RIN 3206-AK76/0790-AH82 Subpart A. I write to express my concerns about proposed changes to work rules in the Department of Defense (DoD). Employee representatives were not allowed to be a part of or participate in the DoD working groups that created the regulations as required by the law. I attended the meetings where DoD met with employee representatives and would not offer any details on the problems it wanted to solve and therefore wouldn?t discuss the solutions either. You can?t have meaningful discussion under these conditions. This message will be sent to both DoD and my representatives in Congress. How can you be a 21st century employee when you are faced with a 19th century management structure? I have worked for DoD for 25 years. The proposal does not contain any of the details, instead repeating over and over that actual details will be developed in the future, presumably out of public and Congressional oversight. DoD employees work hard and are committed to doing a good job. I believe the proposed system will hurt the agency?s mission by creating a system in which federal managers are influenced by favoritism rather than serving the civil concerns of the American people. Subpart B: DoD has proposed to abandon the classification system developed over the past 50 years and substitute a vague pay banding system where management assignment of work will determine an employee?s ranking and ultimately their pay with no recourse or avenue of appeal. The favorites will land the plum jobs and the large raises while the rank and file takes the hits as they diligently complete their less glamorous tasks and morale falls even lower. Uniformity and fairness go out the window with this system. This part also leaves major details to some future unknown state. What happens if through assignment of work, an employee is deemed not to be performing meaningful enough tasks to merit retaining current pay? Where will employees seek an independent arbiter if they want to challenge a change to their classification? It won?t be long before this system will be viewed as unfair and not credible. Subpart C: Pay Administration Under the General Schedule and FWS, employee pay was clear. It was funded by Congress and could not be taken away. However, NSPS will take away this certainty where most of the details of the pay system are left up to issuances in the future. Under the current system, the special rate engineers complained when they did not get the general January locality increase. Imagine the complaints now when employees in every occupation and pay band level will get different local market supplements based on DoD?s say so. Salaries and bonuses are funded by DoD. In the past ? as recently as just last year ? DoD did not fund its awards program. Given the agency?s miserable record on this issue, how can employees feel confident that our salaries and bonuses will be funded in the future? NSPS sets up a new patronage pay system, which DoD calls ?pay for performance,? where the amount of a worker's salary will depend almost completely on the personal judgment of the manager. This system forces workers to compete with one another for pay raises, destroying teamwork, increasing conflict among employees, and rewarding short-term outcomes. There is no guarantee that even the best workers will receive a pay raise or that the pay offered will be fair or competitive. This system will create a situation in which workers are in conflict with one another and afraid to speak out about harassment, violations of the law, and workplace safety problems. Furthermore, there will be no impartial appeal system to assure that everyone is treated fairly with respect to ratings and no appeal at all of pay outs for raises. DoD does a terrible job of awarding performance now, under NSPS, it will get even worse, lowering morale and destroying initiative. Subpart D: Performance Management Supervisors do a poor job now of evaluating performance. We accepted and negotiated a pass fail system because supervisors could not be trusted to evaluate employees performance in a fair and objective manner on the five point system. NSPS proposes now to add personal conduct and demeanor to the evaluation process. Are we now to be graded on whether or not we smile at the boss, stop by the office to chit-chat or agree publicly with every utterance and laugh at every joke made by the boss or suffer a loss in pay? Again, the system will drive morale even lower and destroy any initiative to do a good job if it conflicts with the bosses? agenda. The supervisor?s are supposed to be in contact with employees over their performance plans and expectations. They do a lousy job under a pass fail system, so what makes DoD so sure they will do any better under NSPS? If you have a conscientious supervisor who tries to do the right thing, you may get an objective plan and encouragement to fulfill expectations, or you may have a supervisor who is only interested in their next raise or promotion and do the absolute minimum to comply with the system. That means one mid-term meeting and one annual review ? hardly a change from the current poorly managed system. An older worker who has invested a career in the DOD and is not likely to leave will not be rewarded as well as the younger worker who still has the option of making a career in private industry and must be rewarded with higher raises or will leave. Instead of paying for experience and know-how, DoD will be paying to prevent younger workers from leaving the cut throat, back stabbing system that will result from implementing the proposed regulations. Subpart E: Staffing and Employment Again, only general concepts have been proposed. Under NSPS new priorities and expectations can change during the year making it impossible for some employees to ever meet expectations. The proposal also allows DoD to have new appointing authorities that will allow management to hire whom they want, at the pay they want to give them, and move them from a temporary or term appointment into a career position without competition, bypassing more experienced employees. Another example where NSPS will be a disaster and morale loser. The right to assign work, reinstate, detail, and transfer employees will allow managers to act without restraint and without any oversight to ensure the system is not arbitrary or mismanaged. Subpart F: Workforce Shaping DoD should not change the current RIF system that balances years of service with performance. The proposed regulations will allow managers to control the RIF system to target the individual level by allowing management to RIF to the accounting line, product line or geographic area and the power to reassign and remove employees who disagree or expose wrong doing. Subpart G: Adverse Actions The proposed system will disadvantage DoD employees with respect to other government workers by reducing the number of days notice to employees given an adverse action. Adverse action should also include a reduction of pay band or any other action that reduces an employee?s pay. The proposed use of mandatory removal offenses is another area where DoD leaves the details to future determination. The Secretary will have unlimited ability to determine what offenses will subject employees to a loss of position and further, will not even allow the penalty to be mitigated if found to be too harsh a penalty for the offense. This section will allow the DoD employee to be subject to much harsher penalties then other employees of the federal government and will not even allow the MSPB to review the penalty for fairness or balance. Subpart H: Appeals This section does not set up a third party neutral appeals process to ensure fairness and equity for DoD employees. DoD also proposes to limit processes within the MSPB that will disadvantage DoD employees under the system with respect to other federal employees. Subpart I: Labor-Management Relations DoD has proposed to severely limit the right of unions to collective bargaining over any implementation of the NSPS system and has greatly expanded the management rights section to unilaterally take actions. This is not the system the law set up. DoD has also proposed a ?company? dispute board appointed and controlled almost entirely by DoD. Hardly a fair or equitable system. America is at war. We are fighting for democracy abroad. But the regulations are an attack on workers? basic rights. Furthermore, NSPS will divert the attention of defense workers from the soldiers? welfare to protecting themselves from abuse on the job. I urge you to force DoD to rethink this proposal. We need work rules that preserve fairness, serve the American people, and respect the rights of Defense Department workers. Sincerely,